Ewing family raises $38K for ALS association

Ewing resident Ed DeAngelo, 52, wheeled up to his “Steadie Eddie Squad” on his scooter Saturday morning sporting a T-shirt epitomizing just what his family knows him as — Superman.

DeAngelo spent nearly 30 years serving the Ewing community as a police officer before he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative brain and spinal cord disorder, in October 2012.

More than 150 walkers turned out to support DeAngelo Saturday in the 2014 Lakewood Walk to Defeat ALS, raising $38,000 for the ALS Association-Greater Philadelphia Chapter, his 24-year-old daughter Melissa DeAngelo said. That made the Steadie Eddie Squad the highest fundraising team at the FirstEnergy Park event for the second year in a row, she said.

“It was really awesome,” she said. “We raised over $60,000 in two years. It’s overwhelming. I don’t know how that happened.”

The progressive disorder destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It develops rapidly, with average survival of three to five years, and there is no known cure.

DeAngelo has used electronic devices to communicate since he underwent a tracheotomy in October. But that didn’t stop him from welcoming friends and coworkers he hasn’t seen in years who came to show their support, his daughter said.

Ed DeAngelo of Ewing at the 2014 Lakewood Walk to Defeat ALS on Saturday. Courtesy of Melissa DeAngelo

“It was amazing for him to see people he hasn’t seen in years, not just the regular friends and family,” she said. “He thought it would be more emotional than it was, but he was just in awe of everyone that came.”

The Dileo family of Lawrence, longtime friends of the DeAngelos, came in third place as the highest individual fundraisers, raising about $3,000 on their own.

“People were there who recently lost loved ones and those who had lost loved ones many years ago. Everyone’s feeling was the same: we are here to fight this disease,” DeAngelo wrote in an e-mail. “It was humbling to see people who came to support not just me but the cause.”

Following the event, the DeAngelos welcomed the group back to their Delaware Avenue home where DeAngelo’s 21-year-old son Chris, preparing for a day-long cookout, had set up tents outside while the team was at the Lakewood walk.

“The joke is that my mom has spent Mother’s Day cleaning up after the walk for the past two years,” Melissa DeAngelo said. “The last person left at midnight. It was a great day.”
People, at times, are amazed at how the DeAngelos have taken on this cause, DeAngelo’s wife Sue wrote in an e-mail.

“Yet I feel how can we not? This is our life now,” she wrote. “Most people don’t realize what they’re capable of dealing with until they are actually tested with something like this.”